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Luis Suarez has had a sensational year and for his place on the podium to be taken by someone who has won nothing in 2015 is one of the strangest ever Ballon d’Or decisions.

Is football so obsessed with Ronaldo that he has to be there regardless? Is the monumental slugging match with Lionel Messi so ingrained in how achievements in the game are judged that the podium without him would have left Messi missing his nemesis the way Celtic miss Rangers? Maybe.

Cristiano Ronaldo has endured a frustrating 2015, winning no trophies despite scoring a hat-ful of goals

Ronaldo's scoring feats are astonishing and he fully deserves the Golden Boot because of them

Maybe Fifa have not forgotten the then president of Uruguay Jose Mujica calling them a ‘band of old bastards’ after they banned the player from all sporting facilities for four months after he bit Giorgio Chiellini in the last World Cup? Who can say.

Maybe it’s just laziness. So much of football analysis these days comes down to statistics. If he played the most passes he must be the best midfielder! If he kept the most clean sheets then he must be the best goalkeeper! If he scored the most goals then he must be the best striker! But football isn’t about numbers, it’s about the stories behind the numbers.

Ronaldo scored more goals than anyone in domestic football last season but Real Madrid did not win the league. He scored more goals in the Champions League but they did not lift the European Cup.

His scoring feats are astonishing and he fully deserves the Golden Boot because of them. That prize is exclusively about goals but the Balon d’Or should be about more.

Barcelona's front three, who between them have scored 125 goals in 2015, fired them to an historic treble

These three men, including Suarez, should be on the podium winning gold, sivler and bronze at the awards

Messi is there for his part in that Barca front three and the way they won the treble. His goal against Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Cup final had the world on its feet, applauding drop-jawed.

Neymar’s goal last month against Villarreal when he lobbed the ball over the Jaume Costa, spun 180 degrees and volleyed into the back of the net, did exactly the same thing.

Suarez’s Clasico goals were standout strikes and his European Cup final goal against Juventus was what ultimately decided the final.

Those three players are the story of 2015. There was no World Cup – it was all about the domestic game save for Chile’s tremendous Copa America win – and to see three of the biggest players in the game become ever greater than the sum of their parts was a sight to behold.

And the sight we should all be beholding on January 11 in Zurich is the three of them picking up gold, silver and bronze.